Room to grow: Data storage solutions

Thanks to the wide availability of high-speed broadband,digital cameras and media download sites, we are storing more data than ever before. Whilst it was only a few years ago that an 80GB hard drive was more than adequate, nowadays we’re often struggling to find space to save our data. Here we are going to discuss different options for you to consider when you are running out of space.

A full hard drive
If you find your computer is not performing well and you have a lot of data, it quite possible that your computer is running out of hard drive space. On a Mac you may even be getting Startup Disk Full error messages. Furthermore, if your disk is more than 80-90% full then you run the risk of the operating system becoming corrupt or files being overwritten. If your computer is getting too full, what not to do is move your data, especially your photo or music library, to a single external drive. This is because you will only have one copy of the data and if for any reason the disk goes faulty (we can assure you that they do!), then your data will need to be professionally data recovered which is costly and not always 100% successful. Moving your photos to Cloud applications like Drop Box (if this is the single copy) is also not a robust plan as there is no backup copy. With the Cloud, there is a risk of you being locked out of your account if you forget your password, forget to pay or your email account is shut down. There is also a risk that your cloud account may be hacked and your data deleted.

What next?
So what can you do if you are running out of space? You could put your data onto an external drive with a copy in the cloud, as it is imperative that you have it stored in geographically different locations. The issue with moving data off your computer is that the data is then not readily accessible and also it becomes quite time consuming and messy managing the copies of your data, unless you have the right equipment and processes.

The ultimate solution
A more eloquent solution would be to have a storage device which is attached to your network. Such a device is referred to as a NAS (network attached storage) and they have an extremely large storage capacity, typically ranging from 3TB up to over 12TB for home use. Over and above providing more storage space, a NAS server has a number of key functionalities which really make it an attractive option:

 Communal Storage – any devices on your network can access and store data on the NAS providing they have the right access rights. With a NAS, you won’t face the issue of lack of space on any of your computers. This also makes sharing
files easy.

 Disk resilience – a NAS is made up of 2 or more hard drives which can be configured in such away so that in the event that one disk fails, no data is lost.

 Backup solution – data on your devices can be automatically backed up to the NAS.

 Access data remotely – providing you have internet connection, you are able to access the data on your NAS, from anywhere in the world. Stringent security prevents any unauthorised access.

 Different user accounts – you are able to set up different user accounts on the NAS, each with their own passwords and access rights.

 Cloud syncronisation – data on the NAS can be synced with cloud storage to provide a geographically diverse backup.

In our opinion, these key advantages make a NAS the ultimate solution to lack of space issues. There are a number of different NAS servers on the market with varying storage capacity and functionality. Synology is the brand we highly recommend and we are one of the main dealers of Synology in Singapore.

They are an investment and prices start at around $850 ranging up to $2,000. You should remember that purchasing a NAS server can often be on a par with, or even cheaper than, purchasing multiple storage drives for a set of computers or vast amounts of data. Some of the Synology NAS servers have features such as a “Download Station” to allow you to download and store films, music etc. using torrent sites, a “Photo Station” and “Audio Station” to enable you to browse your photos and listen to your music remotely.

Tekkie Help is an authorised retailer of Synology NAS servers. Call us now on 81138682 to request a price list, book a
private demo or to discuss your general storage requirements in more detail.